Evolution
by eDiNbUrgh
Summary: Ever thought of how two lines can turn your life upside-down? For centuries dhampir plus dhampir couldn't get pregnant, but evolution has something else in store for Rose and Dimitri. Spoilers for the Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series (as far as the last goes).
1. Chilling on Clinker

Two lines.

I do not think you could ever understand how frightened those two lines made me, how shock went through all of my body and how denial settled in my mind. Because dhampir plus dhampir made you infertile, which is why I never bothered with birth control. Seeing as I have only slept with one man my whole life, and that man is a dhampir, it makes birth control unnecessary.

Or so you would think.

I had kind of settled with the idea of not having kids, and it did not bother me much either. I was not meant for being a mother. I was meant for being sent of in the battle field, fighting the undead, not raising a child.

But two lines. According to the package, two lines were positive. But clearly it was wrong. These tests were wrong all the time. Dhampir plus dhampir _cannot_ get pregnant. This was some kind of joke, I decided, ready to throw the plastic stick in the trashcan just as the door to our apartment opened and then closed.

I heard Dimitri moving outside the bathroom door, presumably placing his duster on the hanger, getting himself a class of water. He had been down at the gym, keeping up with this not so busy schedule of court, which meant that we did not do much body guarding (except for me and the other guardians in Lissa's squad).

"Rose?" His voice was calm, a little worn out after working out. I would have been down there with him if he had not gone while I was still sleeping. "Where are you, honey?"

I cleared my throat. "In here."

What a weird scene he was about to enter. One we both had been sure that we would never need to experience. I leaned my back against the cold clinker as I sat on the bathroom carpet. I held the pregnancy-test in my right hand, still giving it a sceptical look.

"Rose", Dimitri chuckled a bit when he opened the bathroom door and took one step inside, but that was all he said. His face became blank. No, that's a lie. His face took the expression of confuse, the one directors want when they call "Give me … Confused!" to models.

"What's that?" Gaining the ability to speak again he looked at the test. He sounded nerveless, but you could see the gears in his brain spinning. He was preparing for every possible answer, expect mine.

"A, uh, pregnancy-test." I do not know why, but I blushed. Like I had been caught doing something wrong or something that I was not allowed to. As Dimitri opened his mouth to say something, God knows what, I hastily added; "It's positive."

I do not know why, but saying the words out loud made the whole thing seem more surreal than it already did. I swear I could feel my stomach do a back flick too.

Stunned again, Dimitri leaned against the bathroom wall he too. His brown eyes were clearly puzzled, and I waited for a response. I didn't care if it was confused, surprised or even an angry one – as long as I got one. His silence was unbearable.

He stood there. I guess his lips – those gorgeous lips, so soft to kiss – were hanging a little. But Dimitri was silent. Like dead-silent. I'm not even sure I heard him breath, which made my heart beat a little faster.

"Dimitri? Dimitri, say something." I begged, and I wasn't someone who usually begged. I placed the stick on the toilet seat and crawled to him, pulling him down to floor level. "Anything. Please."

He reluctantly bent down and slowly sat down on the cool floor beside me. He didn't look on me, which made me more frightened than anything else.

"I … I … How's that even possible? We're dhampirs." Dimitri, always the steady, calm anchor in our relationship, almost lost his control. He seized the package and a bit unsteady on the hand held the pregnancy test between his thumb and index finger.

If the situation had not been so severe I would have laughed. Dimitri Belikov, not hesitating when fighting a Strigoi, but now trembling while holding a pregnancy test.

"You sure you read it right?" He asked, eyeing the package thoroughly and glancing over at me every now and then.

"I've already done that", I sighed. "I'm the mastermind here, so naturally, it was the first thing I thought of." I gave him a faint smile as I got up, still to confused and shocked to do anything else.

"I've been feeling nauseous and I didn't get my period this month … I just figured that I've been stressed, but when I thought of it … I haven't." I was fumbling with words and had a hard time collecting my thoughts, something uncommon to me. "It's not the answer I expected or even wanted, but something's clearly wrong because-"

"Wanted? You wanted the test to be negative?" Dimitri's voice was faint, his features pressed together by confusion and a little anger, I guess. "You don't want the baby that has been given to us?"

Whoa, now I'm the confused one. One second, he is talking about how impossible this is (believe me, I know), and the second about the baby? What baby, even? Is it even alive? I mean … I can't be that pregnant right? Oh, stop it. I am not pregnant at all.

"There _is_ no baby", I tried, a bit harsh.

"The test doesn't say so", Dimitri replied, he too getting up from the floor. He shoved the test right beneath my eyes, forcing me to see the two lines once more. I took the test from him, preventing him from doing so again.

"I have looked at it – okay? It's wrong. It happens." I tossed the test in the trashcan. "There is no baby, there will never be a baby. Ever. Forget about all of this."

I felt horrible, but sometimes you have to hurt someone else's feelings in order to make them understand.

I left the bathroom before Dimitri got the chance to reply.


	2. Throw-up Thursday

We didn't speak of the incident in the bathroom. It was better off that way, I figured, but I knew Dimitri hadn't let go of the situation. He just waited for the right moment.

I managed convincing myself that I had the flu of some sorts, but after staying at home instead of working in two days time, I realized it wasn't the flu. I only threw up in the morning. Other than that, the day flew by without more unwelcome visits in the bathroom.

As the restless soul I am I quickly got tired of soap opera shows and re-runs of old ANTM, and there weren't much else to do in our apartment. I wasn't the person who enjoyed being in the kitchen and every smell of food made my stomach twist.

Dimitri didn't mention what had happened in the bathroom, but I could see his looks whenever I left the bathroom. He would watch me with concern, his brown eyes puzzled. I never dared look him in the eye. What if he began talking about it?

He'd eventually leave for the gym or guard-duties and I would curl up in our bed, wishing for this illness to end. But after being sick for a week, I wondered if I ever would get healthy again.

I felt as if I were in a lockdown. Lissa didn't have the time to come to me, and Dimitri wanted me in here if things got worse. Christian didn't really visit since I was sick and Mia was busier than ever, being one of the instructors in the self-defence classes that had sprung to life during the summer.

The apartment had never been this boring. All I did was lying in the queen-size bed, taking turns with walking to the kitchen, opening a box with grapes, then running to the bathroom to throw up whatever I might have gotten down there.

It wasn't until I was about to shower later that day I realized how much weight I had lost during a couple of weeks. I felt weak, had all week to be honest, and just undressing made me tremble like a leaf.

It had to be several kilos. Mirrors didn't lie, and my face was sunken, my hair had lost its shine. It had an ordinary brown colour now, the shades of black were no where to be found. My breasts didn't even fill the bra, which never happened.

As I stood, watching my own reflection, Dimitri arrived. Why was I always in different compromising situations that all involved me being in the bathroom when he got home? I quickly jumped in the shower and pulled the shower curtain to cover me.

The warm water was so hot it made my skin red, but I barely noticed. I was too concentrated on listening if Dimitri would be entering the bathroom. I didn't want him to see me like this. Not this weak, this thin … I was kind of disgusted by my own body but there was nothing I could do about it.

I leaned on the blue clinker as the water drenched my from top to bottom. Standing up made me nauseous – not the Strigoi-nausea though – I felt weaker than ever. My legs were shaking. I doubted I'd make it to the bed without falling, so perhaps it was a good thing Dimitri had come home.

Or not. I reminded myself that I didn't want him seeing my like this, not sick or weak. He would worry about my loss of weight. Worry much, because it was his nature. I loved that about him – I loved him so much – but he wasn't suppose to worry about me.

I was, however, interrupted in my monologue as my stomach made what felt like a back flick and I had to throw myself out of the shower to reach the toilet in time.

"Rose? Are you okay?" Dimitri's knock on the door didn't interrupt me throwing up my guts.

I felt so horribly disgusting when he entered the room, only covering myself with a towel. I had flushed the toilet so he didn't have to see that.

Dimitri only took one look at me before scooping me up in his arms. He made it seem so simple, like my weight was nothing. Clearly, he too was surprised of my weight. "Roza." He eyed my with that concerned look again, and I couldn't look away. There were nothing else to look on. "You lost weight."

I nodded. "I'm sick."

"I don't think you are", he contradicted, carrying me to our bed. There he laid me as comfortably he could, before sitting down next to me. "I really do think you are pregnant."

"Don't … don't go there. You know it's not true." I pleaded. This wasn't happening – we weren't having this discussion. We couldn't.

"When Karolina was pregnant with Paul, she threw up all the time. She lost weight. I even talked to her about it last week."

At that moment, I felt completely numb. He had talked to her sister about all of this. Had he mentioned he thought I was pregnant? I don't know. He talked to his family about everything, but also kept our secrets.

"But she was pregnant with a moroi, which I'm not." I gave him a stern look, as stern as I could make it, but he didn't argue about it. He just met my eye with a look of sadness and perhaps a bit … hurt. Then I realized. "You- You don't think I cheated on you, do you?"

Only .. He did.


	3. Third Time's A Charm

**Long time no see ... My fault, not yours. Terrible sorry it's taken so long, but school's been _wicked._ Hope you'll enjoy! I'll talk to you in the end of this chapter. :)**

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"I understand if you did it", Dimitri replied after several moments, avoiding answering the question. "You and I will never have a baby, Rose, because … we're dhampirs. I want kids, believe me, but I love you so much I can give that up. If you want them so bad you considered cheating, I just wished you had told me first so we could end this", he made a wide gesture, and I think it included us, the apartment, everything that was us, "before you had to."

I sat silent for a moment. I can't believe he would think I had cheated on him? He was the love of my life, the only one for me. We had been dating for five years now, including the year at the academy.

"I didn't do it", I whispered. I wasn't an easy crier, but a few tears started rolling down my cheeks. "I'm not pregnant, and I didn't cheat. You have to trust me, Dimitri. Trust your instincts."

He nodded, and I saw that he was crying too. "Come here." He leaned closer to me, and I kissed him, trying to put all of my love in to that one kiss. He responded quickly, and the reaction was amazing. Sparks flew as he leaned closer and his tears fell on my cheeks instead of his.

Dimitri broke it, but stayed within an inch. "It was a stupid thing to say, I'm sorry." He kissed my lightly, just brushing my lips with his. "But you are pregnant. See this?" He placed my hand on the lower parts of my stomach. Despite all the lost weight, I was slightly bigger just there. A tiny bump, but you could feel it.

His brown eyes met mine as I shocked looked at him. "No way."

"Only one way. To find out, I mean." I looked at him questioning, and he raised an eyebrow. "Go to the doctor."

Seeing as I desperately wanted to convince Dimitri that I hadn't cheated on him – and really, I haven't – I agreed to seeing a doctor. I didn't know when, where or how that would happen, just that Dimitri had said he would find something that worked for all of us.

Now, I didn't know what he meant about 'all of us' either, but I had stopped questioning him a long time ago. There were no use.

My nausea didn't come back as often and I could slowly get food back in my system. I had a long way to go to gain back my muscles, but I was prepared to do anything. I didn't throw up nearly as often as a week ago, even though it occasionally happened.

One morning, when I was in the bed watching bad reality TV there was a knock on the door. I was surprised, because Dimitri was off guarding Christian at a conference, and I had no clue about Lissa now since the bond disappeared.

When I didn't get up right away there was another knock before someone simply unlocked the door. That was my lead – only four people in this world had a key to our apartment. Me and Dimitri, of course, and then Lissa and Christian.

"Liss! I'm in the bed", I called and didn't even attempt to get up. I really should stand up and bow, but seeing as I'm her best friend and normally one of the twelve guards in her squad, I didn't think I had to. Neither did she, although she scowled when she saw me sprawled out all over the bed.

"You're not ready, Rose?" Lissa eyed my pajamas with discontent, and I eyed her with curiosity. She was dressed very proper, of course, being the queen and all, but didn't wear a crown. She only wore a crown to big feast or when she travelled the world, meeting with her people.

Now it was a light blue dress suit with a knee long skirt, pumps and merely pearls for jewellery. She was and would forever be a classic beauty, one I would from time to time envy for her light colours.

"Ready for what?"

"I thought Dimitri told you. We're going to the medical centre. Doctor Dashkov."

Dashkov? Although Victor now is long gone, every time I heard his last name it sent a chill down my spine. It wasn't fair to all the other Dashkovs out there, especially not the new prince.

Doctor Dashkov wasn't the new prince though. He was the court doctor, taking care of small or big issues that involved all the biggest royals. He was specifically responsible for the ruling family's health, and since Lissa only had Jill, they'd included Christian in the deal.

However, I wasn't included in the deal as far as I knew, and after all, I was a dhampir. We had our own physicians to go to if we had problems. Some dhampirs didn't go if the realized they had problems keeping up with the job, seeing as they would have to retire. None of us wanted to retire.

"Doctor Dashkov?" I wasn't as sceptic as it may sound, just surprised that he would be taking care of my medical issues.

"Yes, he squeezed you in to his tight schedule since he owns the queen a favour", Lissa replied with a slight hint of a smile. "But you're going to miss the appointment if you don't hurry. Dimitri and Christian's already there."

I jumped out of bed and quickly undressed. I heard Lissa gasp out of shock, but if we were in that much of a hurry as she implied, I couldn't deal with her seeing my body the first time since I lost weight.

Running around half naked didn't bother me. It was only her and me – no doubt the squad was right out side, though – and we grew up together for Gods sake. We'd seen each other more or less naked loads of times.

When she finally addressed me – I had a t-shirt on and was trying to jump into my jeans – it wasn't to say something about my weight loss. (And really, I had gained some pounds back during this last week.)

"You have a baby bump."

I nearly fell to the ground when I heard her say that. I thought it was barely visible! No one was supposed to know. Especially since I still didn't believe I was pregnant. But if Lissa saw it … Who didn't?

Her next mention startled me.

"Your aura has a new shine", she continued. I didn't know how often she would open her senses and peek at my aura, but she rarely mentioned doing so. "You have the same glow Sonya had last year."

Oh shit. I mean, Sonya and Mikhail having a baby girl last year is amazing, especially since they made the same journey me and Dimitri have, but if I really had the same glow Sonya had had, that had to mean something.

Seeing as the last time I lied about something to Lissa (about my relationship with Dimitri) it didn't work out that well, I decided I should tell her everything. As quickly as possible of course, so we didn't miss the precious appointment.

I explained how I didn't think I was pregnant because I had only ever been with Dimitri and why I hadn't been guarding her for weeks. When I told her all this she would occasionally nod, and her eyes would flick from my face to right above my head – clearly looking at my aura – and then back again. To my chagrin, I could feel my eyes tearing up. Ridiculous.

"So that's why Dimitri said it was urgent."

So he had been talking to her? I just thought she made the appointment because I hadn't been coming to work. Ah, well.

"Let's leave then", Lissa said, with a small smug. "I can't believe you're pregnant! Who would have thought that you would become a mother before me or even at all?"

I was too exhausted by spilling my life's story to correct her about pretty much everything in that sentence. We left the apartment with her full squad. She told me that she didn't want to attract attention and the best way of that was to act normal. That included me walking as if I wasn't working.

We talked about usual things on the way to the medical centre, such as all the meetings that had passed since we last talked. The defence classes were going so well they had to look for new teachers all the time to create advanced groups to further the education. The upcoming travels for Lissa through-out the country, visiting important moroi-spots and schools. It seemed we had too much to talk about in so little time, that we rushed through everything to make it in time.

When we entered the centre we were rushed to a private waiting room where we found Dimitri and Christian anxiously waiting. When Lissa had mentioned us meeting them here, I hadn't fully understood that we would.

"You were suppose to be at a conference!" I exclaimed, but leaned closer to Dimitri and smelled his aftershave. Even if I had been smelling that for years now, I never got tired of that smell. It was a great comfort.

"It got cancelled", Christian said with a wry smile, one hand in his pocket and the other around Lissa.

The guardians of Lissa's squad – my colleagues, really – had spaced out and now pretended not to see or hear anything but potential danger. The room itself was a bit more fancy than ordinary waiting rooms, with comfy sofas instead of plastic seats and a coffee machine to assist it's guest.

We had just sat down, me and Dimitri in one couch and Lissa and Christian in the other, when a nurse came through a white door with frosted glass.

"Guardian Hathaway, doctor Dashkov will see you in a minute. You are welcome to get comfortable in the examination room until then." She smiled and opened another door to let me and Dimitri in. Lissa and Christian was promptly held outside, with the argument that they were neither family or lovers.

They were as good as – family, I mean – but we didn't contradict the nurse.

I weighed in, as I was suppose to, before I sat down at the examination table and nervously twisted my hands in my lap. I heard rather than saw Dimitri sitting down at one of those spinning chairs you loved when you were a child.

He slid across the floor in the spacious room and took my hands in his. "Roza", he said and stayed silent for a second longer than needed. My pulse raced and I felt as if I were supposed to run a marathon or something, and Dimitri's seriousness didn't help.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking." He swallowed before continuing. "I will love and cherise whatever's in you. I will raise him or her as my own and we wont take a paternity test, because as far as I'm concerned I'm her dad."

His speech was so heart warming I felt my eyes tear up again. (What's up with that anyways? I _never _cry.) My heart must've skipped a beat when he said he was the father, even though there was no baby and never would be one.

I kissed him gently to show my gratitude and felt the familiar tastes of Dimitri, and I could have gone a lot longer if we weren't interrupted just then.

I felt a bit ashamed as Doctor Dashkov entered the room, but he smiled politely as he sat down at another chair. He too pulled his chair closer to me so that we could have a little chit-chat about my condition.

He was a long, slender moroi in his forties, the same age as my mother maybe. He had brown hair and the jade green eyes common for Dragomir and Dashkov. Instead of reminding me of Lissa, as they should, I came to think of Victor. I quickly brushed that away from my mind.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, I assume?" I nodded to confirm the fact that it was my full, horrid name. "Age?"

"Twenty-one and a half", I replied.

He smiled at my remark, but continued. "And you are Dimitri Belikov? Aged twenty-eight? Any halves or quarters you would like to add?"

Dimitri confirmed those statements but declined to add any 'halves or quarters' and Dashkov continued. "You are here because of your frightening weight loss, Rosemarie. Are you very concerned of your body image?"

I opened my mouth to give him a reply, but quickly closed it again. Was I? I mean, sure, I always wanted to be fit and all that, but I wasn't overly attached to my weight, was I? It had been scary to lose all those pounds. I'm not even going to deny it, because I freaked out. Mostly because all those pounds were muscles.

"No." I looked at Dimitri to see if he agreed with me, and he actually looked like he did. "And Rose will do."

Doctor Dashkov replied with a small smile. "As comforting that is, _Rose_, you have lost a lot of weight." He held up a small note with my current weight, but I didn't want to see it. "Have we considered that you might endure severe eating disorder?"

Dimitri cut me off before I got a chance to answer, and that might have been for the better.

"We- I think that Rose might be pregnant."

Struggling to keep his face straight, Dr. Dashkov eyed my curiously. It was the same glance Lissa had given me – when they doubted Dimitri was the father. I knew now that Lissa didn't doubt anymore, but that didn't stop the doctor from doing it.

"I took a pregnancy test some weeks ago", I admitted. "It was positive. But it can't be, because- because I've only ever been with Dimitri. You have to trust me on my word."

"We'll have to do a check then", replied Dashkov, back to professional mode. "When was the first day in your last period?"

"August eight." I had been going over this so much since then that the date was etched in my mind.

"It certainly seems as it's possible you are pregnant, but we'll see about the father."

He didn't mean anything bad about it, it was simply a fact. Dhampir plus dhampir didn't work. At least not when it came to reproducing. I was asked to undress my stomach as much as possible and then lie down.

I took Dimitri's hand in mine, not sure what would happen next. The doctor put a cold click of some gel on my stomach and then pulled a computer screen closer to the bed.

"Now, it may be too early for you to see anything, but I want to check that everything's going alright despite your weight loss", Dashkov said and placed an instrument on me. I couldn't get a feel for what to call it, but he drove around like it was a car.

Every now and then the screen would change from one picture in black and white to another, and when Dr. Dashkov found what he had been looking for he paused. "This, right here Rose, is your baby's head. This is his or hers heart."

My breathing stopped. A heart. Our baby has a heart. I can't believe it myself yet, but I started tearing up again. Looking at Dimitri, I saw him doing the same. We connected looks for a split of a second, and were then all over the screen again.

It was still so unbelievable. I had a life inside of me. A baby.

I know, I know. I really should trust doctor Dashkov telling my I was pregnant. But I simply couldn't comprehend and wanted to make sure that wasn't a trick.

I shouldn't be a trick since I had the "same glow" as Sonya had, but hell. I needed to know for sure.

When we got home I slipped away to the bathroom, leaving Dimitri to serve Lissa and Christian coffee or tea.

I didn't tell them that I did it. I felt a bit ashamed that I still didn't believe it. It wasn't easy waiting for two minutes. It felt as though I would break of nervousness and impatience.

And then, my phone rang. Two minutes had passed. I took a deep breath before looking down at my third test.

Two lines.

For the first time, I believed it.

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**It's official - Rose is pregnant! **

**Other things that are official: a) The actual movie starts filming TODAY. That's totally awesome, b) I finish school next week! Summer vacation, here I come 3 lots of time to wrap this fanfiction up, to finish writing the rough version of my next and hopefully start publishing something new. **

**Lots of love to all the reviewers! You know I love you. **


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